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How will 2025 end? An aftermath, an aftertaste or an afterglow?

November 9, 2025

If you’ve felt your shoulders creeping up around your ears lately, you’re not alone. Across Aotearoa, school leaders and teachers are feeling the strain of rapid announcements and shifting directives. It’s a lot and our collective stress response systems are working overtime.

When the pace of change ramps up, our brains interpret uncertainty as a threat. The sympathetic nervous system flicks the “go” switch: heart rate up, focus narrowed, patience shortened. It’s not a weakness. It’s biology. The same system that once kept us safe from sabre-toothed tigers now activates when a new directive drops into our inbox at 4 p.m. on a Friday.

The problem? When we’re in this state, the part of the brain that handles logic, creativity, and problem-solving — the prefrontal cortex — goes offline.

Our job as leaders is to recognise this escalation; in ourselves and in others — and intentionally bring the temperature down.
Here are 4 practical tools to stay online:

Pause before the fix

De-escalation must come before direction. When people are dysregulated, they simply can’t process reasoning or reassurance. So instead of diving into solutions, start with empathy:
“I can see this is frustrating.”“It sounds like you’re feeling overwhelmed.”

Lead yourself first

We can’t slow the flow of changes, but we can regulate how we show up for our people. Start there. Ground yourself, breathe, take a pause before responding.

“Between stimulus and response there is a space and in that space is our power to choose”

Give your people what they CRAVE

When people feel unsettled or threatened by uncertainty, they’re often craving five core things:

  • Status: a sense they matter and are valued.
  • Control: small choices or input into decisions.
  • Clarity: knowing what will happen next in our context.
  • Connection: feeling seen and understood.
  • Fairness: confidence that processes are clear, consistent and kind.

Put your own oxygen mask on First

It’s almost impossible to lead others if we’re not calm ourselves. Create micro-moments of regulation through your day:

  • Step outside
  • Move your body
  • Hydrate
  • Connect with a colleague who centres you

Your calm is contagious.
People are doing the best they can with the nervous systems they have.
You can shape the next 5 weeks; how people are feeling, how they are interacting, what they’re talking about and what they are being distracted by. You have complete control over you and it is you that is influential. You set the weather.

He toa taumata rau
Courage has many resting places.
Ngā mihi
Carol & Nadia